Latest market data

Stock search

In their book,
The Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords, 3rd Edition,
authors Perry Marshall and Bryan Todd lay out the fundamentals of
Google's pay-per-click advertising system and detail how
businesses can build campaigns to increase search engine
visibility, capture clicks and increase sales. In this edited
excerpt, Marshall and Todd discuss how to identify, communicate
and leverage the key to successful marketing: your business's
unique selling proposition.

When your small business possesses a simple, unmistakable
mission, it stands out in an age of obfuscated marketing messages and
Byzantine corporate-speak.

Your ads will practically write themselves and people will line
up to buy from you when you have a really powerful answer to
these two questions: Why should I do business with you, instead
of any and every other option available, including that of doing
nothing at all? And, what do you uniquely guarantee?

Your answer is your unique selling proposition, or USP: A
statement of value that's so clear and focused it's almost
impossible to misunderstand it. It's what you bring to the table
that no other business does, or even can.

Your USP is about your product's uniqueness. It's your whole
argument for your product, its accompanying services, why it's
necessary and why you need it to solve your problem now, rather
than later.

A lot of the difficulties people have with Google come from
having a USP that isn't clear or even unique. If you have it
right upfront, everything from the keywords and ads to the price
of your product fall into place.

In fact, these are powerful guidelines for what to include in
your Google ad and on your web page when folks click through.
Answer them, and you've made your message that much more
compelling.

We've all fallen on our faces attempting to be all things to all
people. If your purpose is murky and your sense of identity is
vague, it confuses your customers.

Perhaps the most famous USP of all is from Domino's Pizza: Fresh,
hot pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less,
guaranteed. A multibillion-dollar business was built from this
unique, simple statement of value.

When you have this message defined and focused, it will liberate
you. You become the specialist. Nobody expects you to be an
expert on anything other than your one niche.

A couple summers ago we went searching for a solution to an
increasingly slow computer. We typed, "my computer is slow" into
Google, and this ad popped up: "Slow Computer?
www.RegistryFix.com The Problem is Registry Errors. Scan Your PC
Now -- Free Trial."

Registry errors are a common problem with Windows, and software
that fixes them is widely available. But we'd never seen an
advertiser as clear and gutsy as the guy who wrote this simple
ad. The diagnosis is uncomplicated, the offer is compelling -- a
free and quick, no-obligation registry scan -- and the result is
a faster computer. Can't beat that for clarity.

Can you take your message and whittle it down to one short
sentence, enough to fit in a Google ad? Can you restate your USP
to diagnose a problem, and position yourself as the solution?

Be different. You'll get the clicks. This is one of the funniest
ads we've ever seen: BIG ASS FANS. It could easily be knocked
off. But it gets love letters. It gets hate mail. And all the
while this company has created a product with broad appeal and an
incredibly unique identity.

The company started in Lexington, Ky., as the HVLS Fan Company.
It manufactured large, slow-moving fans for giant spaces like
warehouses, dairies and factories. The initials stand for high
volume, low speed. But it changed its name, and now most folks
know the company as Big Ass Fans. And it took its world by storm
with some of the savviest guerrilla marketing we've ever seen.

It's just a fan. But Big Ass Fans has created a personality
around this product so powerful that it grabs people's attention
immediately and catapults its advertising effectiveness into the
stratosphere.

More importantly, there's a real economic argument here. A
standard fan circulates air at 10,000 cfm (cubic feet per
minute). But you need to circulate 125,000 cfm of air, 13 times
that amount, at your warehouse. Using 13 standard fans would cost
75 cents an hour, and $18 for 24 hours.

But run just one Big Ass Fan, and you'll circulate the same
amount of air for $0.88 a day. This is now part of Big Ass Fans'
USP. The question now becomes, can your warehouse afford NOT to
put in a Big Ass Fan?

Want to dominate your market? Take your USP, add some chutzpah
and give it an unforgettable delivery.